by Terry Cox

For many years, I abbreviated printer’s names with three letters, principally because most collectors do not ascribe much importance to printers.

However, a few major contributors have asked for more details in this area. Mainly because three letters simply does not give sufficient ability to discriminate between similarly-named companies. Consequently, I am going back through all my references and adding more details as I get the time.

This is a long process, made more difficult because I do not have all the sources that the original printer’s names came from. So please contribute full names when you find printer’s names I have missed.

Please note that the vast majority of generic certificates were (and still are) printed by Goes Lithographic Co. in Chicago. Most show the ellipse-shaped “GOES” logo in the lower left corner of the border. Many different local printers overprinted Goes’ certificates with company names and other details. Some of those secondary added their own imprint. However, please be aware that I still list most generic certificates as “Goes”, because it was the primary certificate designer.

The American Bank Note Company was the world’s foremost engraver and printer of bank notes and securities. Engraving company names are recorded for only about half of the certificates in the database. Of that number, the ABNCo imprint appears on 45% of the certificates and imprints from predecessor companies account for an additional 15%. Assuming that percentage holds up as more information develops, the American Bank Note Company and its ancestors will eventually account for 60% of all railroad-related certificates.

The huge American Bank Note Company was formed from an association of seven competing companies in 1858. Because it employed the finest engravers, the images that ABNCo offered were of the highest and most durable quality. It created thousands of classic images after 1858, but continued to use images from all its ancestral companies. That is why you will find identical vignettes on many diffferent certificates with different engraving company imprints.

Unfortunately for the company, paper stock and bond certificates were eventually supplanted by electronic trading. By the 1990s, all but a tiny percentage of security ownership had become a matter of electronic record. By 1999, the amount of global security and bank note printing had dropped so precipitously that the company ultimately had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Here is a complete list of all the predecessor companies, that I currently know of, that ultimately became part of American Bank Note Company. Please contact me if you have evidence of additional predecessor or related companies that I have missed. (Most information presented here comes from The Story of the American Bank Note Company by William H. Griffiths, 1959.)

American Bank Note Co. (known as the “Association” period)
formed in 1858 by the merger of seven companies

merged with United Bank Note Corp. in 1911 and continued to operate as American Bank Note Co.
later, became a subsidiary of United States Banknote Corporation, a holding company
later changed its name to American Banknote Corporation
spun off American Bank Note Holographics Co. in 1998
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1999
currently reporting to SEC as American Banknote Corporation (ABNK.PK)

Bald, Cousland & Co.
formed in 1853 from part of Danforth, Bald & Co.
associated with six other companies: